NEW YORK AND MEXICO CITY – The 15 groups are now set for the inaugural edition of the highly-anticipated Leagues Cup 2023, the official Concacaf competition where all 47 clubs – 18 from LIGA MX and 29 from MLS – will play in a World Cup-style tournament that will quality three clubs for the 2024 Concacaf Champions League. The New England Revolution will play Mexican side Club Atlético de San Luis and the New York Red Bulls in the group stage.
The inaugural edition of Leagues Cup will take place from July 21 – August 19, 2023, with every match available on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app, which is available on Apple devices, smart TVs, streaming devices from Roku, Amazon, and Google, game consoles, and the web at tv.apple.com. In addition, TelevisaUnivision, FOX Sports, TSN and RDS will be the linear broadcast home for select Leagues Cup matches. The Leagues Cup Final will be available on Univision in Spanish.
Beginning in 2023, MLS and LIGA MX will pause their respective league seasons each summer and all 47 first division clubs in Canada, Mexico and the United States will compete in Leagues Cup, an official Concacaf competition. The inaugural Leagues Cup will consist of 77 matches, kicking off on Friday, July 21, with the final taking place on Saturday, August 19. The tournament will be played across the U.S. and Canada. The champion, as well as the second and third-place finishers, will qualify for the Concacaf Champions League and have an opportunity to earn a spot in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Atlético de San Luis will make its first foray into continental competition this year after finishing 13th in the LIGA MX Apertura 2022. The Mexican side based in San Luis Potosí began play in 2013 and was promoted to LIGA MX in 2019. In the 2022 Clausura, San Luis finished 10th, its best finish at the top-flight level. After two matches in the Clausura 2023, San Luis sits second in the LIGA MX table with four points, defeating Necaxa and drawing Chivas de Guadalajara.
The New York Red Bulls return to the international stage for the first time since 2019 when they reached the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions League. The Red Bulls have qualified for the Concacaf Champions League five times, reaching the semifinals in 2018 before losing to eventual champion Chivas de Guadalajara. Last season, the Red Bulls finished fourth in the Eastern Conference, falling in the first round of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs to FC Cincinnati.
New England makes its Leagues Cup debut this summer after returning to the Concacaf Champions League in 2022. This marks the seventh time New England has played in a continental tournament, having previous participated in Concacaf Champions League, Concacaf Champions Cup, and North American SuperLiga. The Revolution won the North American SuperLiga title in 2008.
Revolution Ticket Information:
The New England Revolution’s first home match in Leagues Cup 2023 is included in 2023 Revolution Season Membership plans as the 18th home game, in addition to 17 MLS regular season home matches. Single-game tickets for the Revolution’s Leagues Cup 2023 home game(s) will go on sale after the complete schedule is announced. Individual match tickets for Major League Soccer home games are scheduled to go on sale to the public on Friday, February 3. Ticketmaster.com pre-sale opportunities will begin on Thursday, Feb. 2. Existing Season Members and multi-game package holders may purchase additional single-game tickets beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 1. Additional details will be made available soon.
Competition Format
As the 2022 MLS Cup champion, Los Angeles Football Club qualified directly into the Round of 32 of Leagues Cup 2023. LIGA MX champion Club de Fútbol Pachuca earned the bye as the LIGA MX champion with the most combined points accumulated across the Clausura and Apertura seasons in the 2022 calendar year.
Every team will play two matches in the Group Stage, with the top two teams from each group, as determined by points, advancing to the Knockout Stage Round of 32. No matches in the Leagues Cup Group Stage will end in a tie. If a game is tied after 90 minutes, the game will proceed to a penalty shootout. For tiebreakers and other competition items, the Leagues Cup 2023 Competition Guidelines will be published in the coming months.
The Leagues Cup 2023 groups are based on clubs' 2022 performance along with their geographic regions. The 15 groups will be broken up into four regions: West, Central, South and East. Each region will have four groups, except the West, which will have three groups due to LAFC’s entrance in the Knockout Stage. Pachuca will enter the Knockout Stage in the South, opposite side of the bracket from the MLS Cup Champion and opposite quadrant from the top MLS seeded club based on the final 2022 Supporters’ Shield standings.
The top 15 MLS clubs – excluding the MLS Cup champion – have been placed in their corresponding geographic region first, and then based on their position in the final 2022 Supporters’ Shield standings. The top 15 LIGA MX teams, based on the combined Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2022 standings – excluding the LIGA MX champion as described above – have been paired in reverse order with the top 15 MLS clubs (No. 15 LIGA MX seeded club has been paired with No. 1 MLS seeded club and so on).
Continuing with the competitive balance criteria, the remaining 13 MLS clubs have been placed in the groups, again based first on their geographic region, and then based on their position in the final 2022 Supporters’ Shield standings.
With the MLS clubs placed into groups, the South and East regions have one remaining slot each. Based on the combined Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2022 standings, the last two remaining LIGA MX clubs, Querétaro (No. 17 LIGA MX) and FC Juarez (No. 16 LIGA MX), have been placed in reverse order from the highest seed in each group, paired respectively with Philadelphia Union (No. 1 MLS) in the East and Austin FC (No. 3 MLS) in the South.
Leagues Cup 2023 – Groups
West
- West 1: Tigres UANL (No. 2 LIGA MX), Portland Timbers (No. 14 MLS), San Jose Earthquakes (No. 25 MLS)
- West 2: Monterrey (No. 3 LIGA MX), Real Salt Lake (No. 13 MLS), Seattle Sounders FC (No. 20 MLS)
- West 3: LA Galaxy (No. 7 MLS), Club Leon (No. 9 LIGA MX), Vancouver Whitecaps FC (No. 16 MLS)
Central
- Central 1: América (No. 1 LIGA MX), Columbus Crew (No. 15 MLS), St. Louis CITY SC (No. 28 MLS)
- Central 2: Puebla (No. 6 LIGA MX), Minnesota United FC (No. 10 MLS), Chicago Fire FC (No. 23 MLS)
- Central 3: Chivas Guadalajara (No. 7 LIGA MX), FC Cincinnati (No. 9 MLS), Sporting Kansas City (No. 21 MLS)
- Central 4: Nashville SC (No. 8 MLS), Toluca (No. 8 LIGA MX), Colorado Rapids (No. 17 MLS)
South
- South 1: Austin FC (No. 3 MLS), Mazatlán FC (No. 13 LIGA MX), FC Juárez (No. 16 LIGA MX)
- South 2: Santos Laguna (No. 4 LIGA MX), Orlando City SC (No. 12 MLS), Houston Dynamo FC (No. 24 MLS)
- South 3: Cruz Azul (No. 5 LIGA MX), Inter Miami CF (No. 11 MLS), Atlanta United (No. 22 MLS)
- South 4: FC Dallas (No. 6 MLS), Necaxa (No. 10 LIGA MX), Charlotte FC (No. 18 MLS)
East
- East 1: Philadelphia Union (No. 1 MLS), Club Tijuana (No. 15 LIGA MX), Querétaro (No. 17 LIGA MX)
- East 2: CF Montréal (No. 2 MLS), Pumas (No. 14 LIGA MX), D.C. United (No. 27 MLS)
- East 3: New York City FC (No. 4 MLS), Atlas (No. 12 LIGA MX), Toronto FC (No. 26 MLS)
- East 4: New York Red Bulls (No. 5 MLS), Atlético de San Luis (No. 11 LIGA MX), New England Revolution (No. 19 MLS)
The complete Leagues Cup 2023 bracket and schedule will be announced in the coming months. Please visit LeaguesCup.com for more information.
**MLS Season Pass**
MLS Season Pass will launch on February 1, 2023 – introducing an unprecedented subscription service to fans that features every live MLS and Leagues Cup match, as well as hundreds of MLS NEXT Pro and MLS NEXT games. MLS Season Pass will be available on billions of devices through the Apple TV app Apple TV app on Apple devices, smart TVs, streaming devices, set-top boxes, and game consoles, and on the web at tv.apple.com.
Starting February 1, fans can subscribe to MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app for $14.99 per month during the season or $99 per season, and Apple TV+ subscribers can sign up at a special price of $12.99 per month and $79 per season. As an exclusive benefit of their full-season membership, New England Revolution Season Members will receive one MLS Season Pass subscription with each account. Visit Revolutionsoccer.net or call 1-877-GET-REVS to learn more about becoming a Season Member.
